For those that work with Active Directory environments, but (for whatever reason) prefer to keep their computer off the domain (consultants — that’s probably you!), you DO have the option to run SQL Server Management Studio using Windows Authentication from your non-domain user account. I only recently discovered this, and I can’t believe it took me this long to find it.

SQL Server Management Studio 2008:
runas.exe /netonly /user:MYDOMAIN\myuser "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\Binn\VSShell\Common7\IDE\Ssms.exe"

SQL Server Management Studio 2005 Express:
runas.exe /netonly /user:MYDOMAIN\myuser "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\Binn\VSShell\Common7\IDE\ssmsee.exe"

You get the idea 🙂

Now when you run Management Studio, you can select ‘Windows Authentication’ to login to your target SQL Server using your domain credentials. No need to use RDP to remote to your SQL Server or running it in a Domain-enabled Virtual Machine!